[Gc] Interior pointers

[Shiro Kawai]

How did you allocate the allnames array, and with what size?
If it is allocated with GC_MALLOC as well, and placed before buf,
then if you write beyond the allocated size of allnames[]
you'll be writing pointer values into the buffer area that contains
d_name array.  It seems to explain why the string pointed from
allnames[0] keeps increasing.


From: Michael Talbot-Wilson <mtw at view.net.au>
Subject: [Gc] Interior pointers
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2012 21:43:28 +1030 (CST)

> What I'm trying to do is create an array of the names in a directoy
> using a modification of the Linux getdents(2) example program.  I'm
> assigning the address of a struct linux_dirent plus the offset to the
> d_name in it to a char** element.  It works for small directories but
> fails at about the 2700th directory entry, at which point the array is
> overwritten, back to element [0].
> 
> Am I doing something illegal or ignorant with code like
> 
>   for (;;) {
>     buf = (char *) GC_MALLOC(BUF_SIZE);
>     nread = syscall(SYS_getdents, fd, buf, BUF_SIZE);
>     if (nread==0)
>       break;
> 
>     for (bpos=0; bpos<nread;) {
>       d = (struct linux_dirent *) (buf+bpos);
>       d_type = *(buf + bpos + d->d_reclen - 1);
>       allnames[array_subscript++] = (char *)d + off_to_name;
>       printf("& allnames[0]=%ld\n", (long) &(allnames[0]));
>       printf("1 allnames[0]=%s\n", allnames[0]);
>       printf("2 allnames[%d]=%s\n",
>              array_subscript-1, allnames[array_subscript-1]);
>       bpos+=d->d_reclen;
>     }
>   }
> 
> ?
> 
> Producing (where "." was the first name read):
> 
> & allnames[0]=134897680
> 1 allnames[0]=.
> 2 allnames[2728]=bzcat
> & allnames[0]=134897680
> 1 allnames[0]=.
> 2 allnames[2729]=xfce4-panel
> & allnames[0]=134897680
> 1 allnames[0]=^L^H
> 2 allnames[2730]=unhex
> & allnames[0]=134897680
> 1 allnames[0]=^L^H:<83>^L^H^B
> 2 allnames[2731]=sgmlcheck
> & allnames[0]=134897680
> 1 allnames[0]=^L^H:<83>^L^HR<83>^L^H<B3>^C
> 2 allnames[2732]=svnversion
> 
> with endless increase in the length of the garbage.
> 
> Hope someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong.
> 
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